The President may have accepted South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson’s apology for his outburst the other night, not because he believes the apology to be sincere, but more as a means to put the ugly incident aside and move on with health care.

Not so, however, for MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

Last night on “Countdown,” in a “Special Comment” lasting a little over 10 minutes, Olbermann didn’t buy Representative Wilson’s excuse that he was emotional when he shouted “You lie!” during Obama’s address to both houses of Congress. Olbermann accused Wilson of “stupidity” and, worse, “racism.”

Olbermann also vented at the “rank willful stupidity” of Wilson and others who are, it appears now, becoming the voice of the Republican Party.

Olbermann is impressive and makes his point. Even though the segment is long, it is worth watching (see link below).

One big point that Olbermann makes is showing where Wilson was wrong when he accused the President of lying about health care reform not covering illegal aliens. Olberman cites Section 246 of the health care reform bill (HR 3200) which specifically outlaws any coverage to people who are not in the United States lawfully.

Checking this out for myself, Section 246 is on Page 143 and reads as follows:

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”

There it is – clearly written and stated. The authors of this section even put the title in all caps and bolded for emphasis.

Wilson, being a member of the House of Representatives, the body which is working on HR 3200, should have known better, and probably did. Olbermann accounts Wilson’s supposed lack of knowledge on Section 246 more to greed – he says that Wilson is indebted to health care special interests to the tune of “$435,296,” according to Olbermann.

“Of course you let your emotions get the best of you,” Olbermann said, “at a figure of $435,296 in campaign donations from the health sector to you,” referring to Wilson, “and your PAC. Of course your emotions would take over when your gravytrain was threatenened.”

The next time Wilson feels compelled to shout out “You lie!” he should find a mirror!

These two guys which Matthews was interviewing couldn’t be further apart.

Anthony Romero is ACLU’s Executive Director and “the top guy” there, according to Matthews. Pete Hegseth is the Chairman of Vets For Freedom and is evidently the number one person in that organization, and, he is also an Iraq War veteran.

Both of these gentlemen, though vastly differing in their positions, had valid points regarding this issue of prisoner abuse and these photos:

Romero’s and the ACLU’s push to release these photos isn’t something that just happened overnight or since the Obama election. According to Romero, “We’ve been fighting it for 6 years,” he told Matthews. Romero suspects the orders for abuse coming from up the chain of command and has “incontrovertible proof” that abuse “worse than Abu Ghraib” occurred, he explained to Matthews. If there has been wrongdoing – especially if came from on high – then it cannot be swept under the rug. Romero has a valid argument in this respect that the truth needs to come out.

Hegseth is concerned about potential danger to American troops in the field if these photos go public. And this is also valid because America does have enemies out there who will use these images, if made available to the public, as propaganda tools to recruit those who would attack our soldiers.

After the usual wrangling back and forth which, we all know, gets nowhere, Matthews evidently sensed, because he is an excellent journalist, a common thread and he changed the tone of the interview with one question:

“Is there any way to find a middle ground?” Matthews asked both gentlemen at the same time.

The results are surprising and should be actively considered by the Obama Administration and Congress.